An ever-present concern when designing and building an aircraft is to minimize its weight. One factor which contributes to the weight of an aircraft is the furniture installed onboard. Some aircraft include a wide variety of furniture onboard the aircraft. One common article of furniture onboard a business jet is a cabinet which can be the galley for storing utensils and other food service related items, the crew quarters for storing flight-related equipment, and a private cabin for various and sundry items of the passenger's choosing.
Cabinets and other articles of furniture onboard aircraft are commonly constructed by aircraft finishers (business entities that build-out the aircraft's interior) who custom build furniture for use onboard the aircraft. Conventionally, an aircraft finisher will purchase panels of structural material (e.g., composite panels, wood panels, aluminum panels, honeycomb panels with carbon fiber, fiberglass, and aluminum skins) that are used in the fabrication of an article of furniture. They will also purchase the skins or veneers (e.g, wood veneer) that are placed on the panels to give the completed article of furniture an aesthetically pleasing appearance. The aircraft finishers join the panels together to form the article of furniture they are trying to construct and then they cover the panels with the veneers. In many instances, the skins and cores are bonded together before being fastened together and are quite often purchased this way. Veneers are added after the cabinet structure has been formed. Once the article of furniture is complete, the aircraft finishers install the article of furniture onboard the aircraft.
Conventionally, the individual panels of the article of furniture are joined together by panel pins. Panel pins are configured to mechanically connect separate panels. The edges of each panel are aligned with one another to form a corner and the panel pins are inserted into an edge of one of the panels. In some applications, an adhesive is applied to the edges of the panels to assist the panel pins in binding the two panels together. In this manner, joints are formed between two panels. As part of this conventional construction process, holes must be drilled in each panel in a manner that precisely aligns with holes that are drilled in each adjoining panel. The panels must then be aligned and the pins are then inserted into the holes, and then adhesive is injected into the pins. This is a labor intensive and time consuming process.
The cabinets and other articles of furniture are subjected to rigorous mechanical testing to measure their ability to withstand tension and shear forces. In order to pass the tests, conventional cabinets that utilize panel pins in their construction have to be made using panels that are thicker/stronger/heavier than would otherwise be necessary in order to accommodate joint strength requirements. Consequently, the use of panel pins to form joints between panels adds considerable weight to the finished article of furniture because of the need to use overly robust panels and panel pins.
While articles of furniture made using panel pins are fine products, there is room for improvement. It is desirable to provide an article of furniture that does not utilize panel pins in its assembly. In addition, it is desirable to provide a method for assembling such an article of furniture that is less time consuming and labor intensive. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics will become apparent from the subsequent summary and detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and the foregoing technical field and background.